Library book sales

In a few days, I’ll be sharing some of the best ways to add new books to your classroom library.

Hands down one of the cheapest (and most charitable) options is to pay a visit to your local Friends of the Public Library book sale. Some public library systems sell books by weight, some have a flat rate, and some even have a “Better Books” section where you can find brand new or nearly-new titles.

Here, I’ll share the step-by-step process I go through in preparing for a trip to a library book sale. If you live in the Seattle area, you can find out more about the SPL’s epic book sales here.

Last winter, Seattle was named the most literate city in the country, and despite suffering from the abysmal funding of its library system, it has some amazing things to offer.

Things like bags of books for crazy cheap. You must go.

One other tip, and I’m not really sure if this is totally legit. Last year, we went on the Friends’ preview night, where you’re limited to 25 books. We, of course, couldn’t limit ourselves to 25 books. But when another patron heard of our plight and saw we were from a school, she gave us her voucher, because she hadn’t bought all 25. Score! I obviously wanted to stay the rest of the evening and poach more voucher cards, but I was denied.

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